Texter Neck About

‘Texter’s Neck’ (also known as anterior head syndrome) describes the position your neck is in when you are looking down at your phone. Flexing your head forward for long periods of time will affect your posture and can cause cervical spinal degeneration.Look at the image above. When your head is in the normal posture, the ears and the neck are aligned and are on the same plane. This evenly distributes the forces through the natural curvature of the spine. The normal head measures approximately 4 to 5kg when held in the correct posture. As the head moves forward in position, the pressure on the neck can increase by many folds. It is observed that texters usually hold their heads at a 40-60 degree angle and this means that their neck is experiencing stress equivalent to a 7 year old child sitting on their neck for 2 hours everyday! Hard to believe? Try this simple test. With your forearm in a vertical position, hold your smartphone vertically by using just your thumb and index finger to grip it on its edges. Now, slowly bend your wrist such that your phone is now in a horizontal position, without adjusting your grip. Feel the added strain on your wrist? That’s exactly what your neck is going through every time your head is bent forward.
If left untreated, permanent damage can happen to the spine, its discs, the neck muscles and nerves. Early onset of arthritis is also possible.

Symptoms

There might be a gradual onset of symptoms like:

Headaches

Neck and shoulder tension

Lack of range of motion

Tingling or numbness that travels down the arm

Inability to take deep breaths

Solutions for neck stiffness and pain

Firstly, hold your device up to your face rather than bringing your face to the device. Also, try to spend less time on your device and take regular breaks. There are also some simple neck exercises that you can do to relieve the neck stiffness and maintain the cervical spine mobility.